For most airlines, fuel costs have emerged as one of the largest expenses for operating the aircraft. To improve the fuel efficiency of the aircraft, an aviation industry has been searching for suitable technologies, shapes, and materials that would enhance flight much more efficient and profitable. One of the ways to boost the fuel efficiency is to improve aerodynamics of the aircraft. Flight operating costs can be substantially increased when aerodynamic drag of the aircraft is increased, which can also result in increased fuel consumption. However, in certain cases, improving the aircraft aerodynamics is relatively a more cost effective task than improving engine fuel efficiency.
Although drag may not be a primary cause of poor fuel efficiency, a minor reduction in a drag coefficient can improve the aircraft fuel efficiency during operation. Such a drag reduction may restore the aircraft's original configuration and result in enhanced performance. For example, at a low speed, drag may not be an important factor, but the faster the aircraft travels, the more drag matters in relation to the fuel efficiency. Thus, aircraft aerodynamicists and maintenance crew constantly inspect the aircraft, and identify any potential or apparent aerodynamic issues to reduce drag for the aircraft.
It is important to collect and access information associated with the fuel efficiency from different aeronautic institutions or business concerns, such as an airline management center and an aircraft manufacturer. However, conventional aircraft audit systems fail to provide communication links between maintenance entities, and also fail to provide synchronized data relating to the fuel efficiency. Further, audit procedures utilized by the conventional audit systems have audit steps that are difficult to track and perform because audited aircraft models may be incompatible with the audit procedures, and changes to the audit procedures are not acknowledged before initiating an inspection sequence.
Therefore, there is a need for developing an improved aircraft audit system that is easy for an auditor to perform the audit steps for enhancing the fuel efficiency of the aircraft.